Notes to Aqdas, Sentence #342

Notes from the Authorized Translation

158. It is unlawful to enter into marriage save with a believer in the Bayan. Should only one party to a marriage embrace this Cause, his or her possessions will become unlawful to the other # 139
The passage of the Bayan which Baha'u'llah here quotes draws the attention of the believers to the imminence of the coming of "Him Whom God will make manifest". Its prohibition of marriage with a non-Babi and its provision that the property of a husband or wife who embraced the Faith could not lawfully pass to the non-Babi spouse were explicitly held in abeyance by the Bab, and were subsequently annulled by Baha'u'llah before they could come into effect. Baha'u'llah, in quoting this law, points to the fact that, in revealing it, the Bab had clearly anticipated the possibility that the Cause of Baha'u'llah would rise to prominence before that of the Bab Himself.

In God Passes By Shoghi Effendi points out that the Bayan "should be regarded primarily as a eulogy of the Promised One rather than a code of laws and ordinances designed to be a permanent guide to future generations". "Designedly severe in the rules and regulations it imposed," he continues, "revolutionizing in the principles it instilled, calculated to awaken from their age-long torpor the clergy and the people, and to administer a sudden and fatal blow to obsolete and corrupt institutions, it proclaimed, through its drastic provisions, the advent of the anticipated Day, the Day when `the Summoner shall summon to a stern business', when He will `demolish whatever hath been before Him, even as the Apostle of God demolished the ways of those that preceded Him'" (see also note 109).

Earl Elder's Notes

1. The Bab commanded that the marriage of Babis must be with other Bab's, that is, the People of the Bayan and according to the laws of the Bayan.

2. This passage is difficult for translation. It appears that according to the teaching of the Bab, if a Babi contracts a marriage with a non-Babi the property of the Babi becomes unlawful for him and will be taken from him, unless he repents. Baha'u'llah sees in the passage a prediction of His coming.

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